I understand how you feel and I agree that were very lucky. What you did
was completely human. People put off doing the things that they need to do
to take care of themselves especially when they have special needs that
take a little bit of extra effort. My grandmother used to eat what she
wanted when she felt like it. That shot her sugar all to hell and I heard
her hit the flood when her knees gave out many times. I worked so I
couldn't stay at home and watch her throughout the day. She needed to be
watch constantly. My father eventually put her into a local nursing home.
Some of those places are not as bad as you might imagine. My father called
her every day to check on her and her rode hard on the nurses about making
sure that she got her meals after she took her insulin. When they waited to
long, he was all over them. My grandmother lived into her 90's. She died
when she got a staph infection in her blood. That's how my father died last
month. There is hope for a person with diabetes. My grandmother lived into
her 90's. But I know a nurse at a local hospitol who didn't manage her
weight and her diet properly who lost several of her toes. You can't screw
around with diabetes. If you take care of it then you can reach old age.
But you can't let yourself get lazy about taking care of it.
I know about fear. I had a tumor on my thyroid gland several years ago. The
doctors were very concerned. No one knew if it was malignant until after
the tumor was removed and biopsied. Fortunately it wasn't. I've since had
two lipomas removed. Those are local, fatty tissue tumors that seldom cause
any problems in men if they are removed. If a woman had one in her breast
then the breast would be removed. My mother died in 2000 from liver cancer.
I've had my share of wake up calls regarding my own mortality. I'm glad
that your present situation is not life-threatening. There is hope that
your vision will completely clear. When necessary, a laser can be used to
seal a leaky blood vessel in the eye. But the leaks could stop on their
own. Watch that sugar level! I think that your vision is going to return.
Doctors are trained to feel nervous about certain kinds of medical
situations. That might only mean that they are concerned. That is a good
thing. It means that you have a doctor who is doing his job and who will
watch your condition closely until you are out of danger of the condition
getting worse. He caught a medical condition in the process of
deteriorating and now he is taking measures to halt the deterioration and
he's doing what he can to fix the damage. You have a good doctor.
Here's a pleasant thought to hold onto. Maybe someone will see some copies
of pictures of your girls in a century or two and decide to create them for
real. It's possible. In that case you will have been responsible for their
creation. Imagine the real girls looking into a monitor at pictures that
you drew of them centuries in the past. There is a picture of you among the
images. That's a nice thought. I think Onyx is waving at you. G.
Edward Fox
> Just to reiterate: I AM NOT DYING, so please don't totally freak
>out. I am in a big pile of shit, however, but I can see others
>coming over the horizon with lots of shovels.
> Thanks again for your support, folks. You all are the best, and if
>it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today, artwise. And I
>don't mean to sound gay or anything (and no offense meant to those
>who are homosexual; you oughta know that by now!), but I love you
>people. You've helped my dream become a reality, and now I gotta
>make sure it stays that way.
>
>--James M. Hardiman
Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 20:11:21 CDT